Historiography and the Narraration of Patriotism in the Historical Drama: Ryomaden

This paper focuses on the historical drama Ryoma-den broadcasted in the Japanese National Channel. Throughout the article the style of narration of the chaotic period in Japanese history in which the main character of the series Sakamoto Ryoma also lived will be taken into consideration in the context of patriotism and emergence of modern Japanese identity. Furthermore how the style of narration in the series coincides with the minsushi style of historiography writing in Japan will also be taken into account. In this respect it can be argued that the way Ryoma as a low rank samurai in the social hierarchy depicted as a human being capable of changing the course of history is highly in accordance with the mentioned type of historiography. The series can be thought significant in the sense that it acts as a medium to reconstuct the history anew by exposing the transition of the charaters embedded with feudal pieties to national citizens. While the series focus on a period when a proud nation was born from the feudal ruins, the theme highlights the devotions and sacrifices of the young people carrying a dream to modernize the society and its corrupted institutions. Though most of the young people were terrified at the beginning of their encounter with the Western Powers, soon enough they become captured by their passion towards the unknown. They started to accumulate the knowledge of the West keeping their proud with their nation a still. Throughout the narrative, the themes of patriotism, solidarity, the reaction and attitude towards the West, and emergence of a new Japanese identity is the frequently covered and the way these themes are taken into considerations shows a great deal about the current representations of a recreated past.

Keywords

Historical Drama, Historiography, Meiji Reformation, Japanese Identity, patriotism.